Andrea Gregovich

WE EXPECTNew Pop Lit to eventually be a worldwide phenomenon, so we’re not averse to spotlighting writers from around the world. We’ve published or presented writers from UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, Malta, Italy, Belarus, Spain, Israel, Switzerland– and we’ve had readers on every continent, with the possible exception of Antarctica.

Today we present new fiction,“The Major,” by renowned Russian author Vladimir Kozlov, translated by Andrea Gregovich. Worth reading for its realism but also to see what’s happening in other literary scenes.

“Well, I have evidence not only that you’ve seen it before, but that you were directly involved in its creation. Do you know what this is called?

“A comic book, I guess.”

“It’s called ‘spreading deliberately false fabrications to defame the Soviet state and social order.’ Article seventy-two of the Criminal Code for the BSSR. I can also pull up Article 58-10: ‘Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.’”
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BUT, at the same time we also present a New Pop Litreview of Mr. Kozlov’s entire new short story collection, 1987 and Other Stories, of which “The Major” is part.

All Hail Pushcart! Yes, we’re one of the many small literary outfits who applaud the Pushcart Prize collections– though we have reservations. To discover what they are, and at the same time find out which works we nominated for the annual awards this year, read this.

Have we missed the boat this year with our picks? Are we all wet? Living in Fantasyland? Let us know!

OUR CHIEF INTEREST is in finding writing which pushes against the acceptable boundaries of the establishment literary/publishing world– and which blurs the lines between the “literary” and “pop.” Toward that end we’ve published work by new writers like Andrea Gregovich, and interviewed more established authors like John Colapinto, if their artistic interests in some way converge with ours.

With our new feature we bring both tracks together, as Andrea Gregovich reviews John Colapinto’s controversial novel Undone. Offbeat personality reviewing a different kind of offbeat personality? It’s a feature not to be missed.

Here’s the thing about the much-maligned male gaze, though: every now and again it hits upon something real.

What about our Pushcart Prize nominations? Did we send in for work published in 2015 any Pushcart Prize nominations?

Absolutely! This time around we sent in three nominations of work from this website, along with three nominations from our just-released-to-the-world print version, NEW POP LIT #1. (Available for sale via our Detroit blog; soon to be offered at the “Shop” feature of this our main site.)

We had an awful lot of very good work to choose from, in both cases, journal and site. We settled on a representative sampling of each. Given that the Pushcart people receive hundreds, maybe thousands, of nominations each year, our bias went slightly toward work which might get their attention, and therefore stand an outside shot at being prize worthy. We erred on the side of uniqueness, and so, went with in one case a translation; in another, a work which could be classified as either story or essay.

We at NEW POP LIT have promised to showcase exciting lit talent wherever we find it. We’re also determined to remain topical.

Talk about timing! Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich was announced yesterday as winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Where is Belarus, you ask? West of Russia; part of the old Soviet Union; at the crossroads still of dramatic historical events.

Stop the presses! We work fast– at least some of the time. Not ones to evah evah evah miss a trend, we present to you a leading writer from Belarus, Andrei Dichenko. Read his magical story about blue pots, Crimea, train rides and magical energy. The able translator is Andrea Gregovich, who appeared here last year with a story of her own about the world of professional wrestling. (Did I say trends?)

Alexanderintroduced himself as a tourist from Belarus, returned the girl’s smile, andbegan to peruse the little pots. They were blue, red, and green, and paintedwith mysteriousrunesand unfamiliarcharacters that madeit feel as ifthey were asking for his hands to hold them.

Greetings New Pop Lit’ers! Instead of a story today, we’re announcing our nominees for the 2015 Pushcart Prizes!

This was somewhat of a bittersweet process for Karl and me, because we publish what we feel are exceptional stories and Pushcart only allows six nominations per publication. Because of this limitation, we’ve chosen six stories that represent a variety of writing styles. Our 2015 nominees are:

That was the night the heat war between Danny and Sergeant Smackdown culminated in a knockout barb from Smackdown. As Danny stood at the base of the ring, barking wicked old school chants through his hands in the form of a megaphone, Smackdown issued his knockout barb: “I should buy you a saddle for Christmas so you can ride my dick.” The poetics of the thing rendered us all speechless, blinking and mouths agape for a moment on the white plastic patio chairs as Smackdown stood in the ring in his tattered camo pants, basking in the yellowish glow of the crappy spotlights they had rigged up in there and the brilliance of the thing he’d said against the background of his death metal entrance music.